Following this video box are some brief verbal sharings from this extraordinary Community Circle Event. Before skipping this or returning to watch the full meeting at your convenience, we strongly urge you to play the first minute and hear the beautiful singing of Elnu Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan.
Some reactions and observations from last Sunday’s talk with Rich Holschuh, Abenaki spokesperson, from Living Earth Action Group’s Core Group. We’ll begin with an a propos poem that was in my (Caitlin's) inbox this morning:
In Conversation
by
Rosemary Tommer
The sound of your voice
enters me and becomes me---
becomes synapse, becomes pulse,
becomes blood, becomes breath.
And in this way, the more I listen to you,
the more I become you.
It is no small thing to converse.
Sometimes I swim in the wild honey
of your words. Sometimes I break
on their jagged shores.
Some words become pillars that hold up
what is possible.
Others are wrecking balls
that turn to rubble all I thought I knew.
How fleeting it is, any grasp
of who we are. This is why,
hour after month after year
I welcome your words---
I like what they do.
Even when they are not easy to hear,
I love who I become
when I listen to you.
From Cheryl Charles:
Dear Rich and all the Living Earth Action group planning group:
Thank you for such an informative, inspiring and important evening. I was heartened to see so many open-hearted members of the community come with good will to learn and be of support.
To be continued!
From Guy Payne:
The audience was all ears with heartfelt attention, eager to understand the immediate issue, and able to step back and see why this is important to Vermonters. The message of building relationships and living together in balance with one another and our natural world was clear. The artificial, and government imposed criteria for proof of legitimacy was shown to serve a self-interest of the Odanak and the governments of Canada and the US. Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun was present and strongly represented Vermont's commitment to the Abenais.
From Michael Daley:
One very important point that came out is that the Vermont Abenaki DO have all sorts of federal recognition, documented and ongoing, just not in as sad a way as the "reservation" Indians do…. -
From Caitlin Adair:
I learned that there is a lot of community support for our Vermont Abenaki bands. I learned that Gov. Scott and both houses of the VT legislature support the legitimacy of our Vermont Abenaki bands. I learned that this ‘controversy’ is one-sided, created entirely by the Canadian Abenaki bands in order to create more wealth for them by claiming entitlement to lands taken from Abenaki, never ceded.
I learned that the effort to discredit Vermont Abenaki is in order to influence public opinion, since the Vermont government is supportive of Vermont indigenous. Negative public opinion of Vermont Abenaki means fewer gifts and grants to support their mission and their people. I learned that this is not a conflict it is a one-sided attack coming from two Canadian Abenaki bands, Wolinak and Odanak. The allegations are entirely false.
Vermont Abenaki are authentic, have always been here. Yes, many intermarried as have all ethnic groups in America. Love is not a bad thing (intermarriage) but the US government has made it a way to disenfranchise indigenous people by requiring blood quotas to qualify as a tribal member. Blood quotas are colonialism still at work today, by erasing tribal unity and membership, after having already erased a great deal of tribal culture through disease, forced sterilization, residential schools, and outright killing (in earlier times).
As “White” Vermonters we must rally around our few remaining indigenous. The messages and wisdom they have for our times are invaluable. Who else but the humans who have lived on this land for thousands of years (latest archaeology says 10,000-13,000 at least) can connect with our forests, our wildlife, and can model the way of living in harmony with Nature and each other that we all need to survive these difficult times?
Two Abenaki chiefs were there: Roger Longtoe Sheehan (Elnu chief) and Don Stevens (Nulhegan chief), along with other Abenaki members. They and Abenaki spokesperson Rich Holshuh deserve our full support in every way possible. Don’t let the Canadians disrupt the good that has developed here.
From David Mulholland (Moderator of the evening):
**************************************
Abenaki and non-Abenaki at the LEAG-sponsored January 21st gathering in Westminster West exemplified "community" in the broadest of terms.
Abenaki present relayed experiences from their history that recounted millenia-deep cultural roots throughout Northern New England and Southeastern Canada, as well as the nearly five-century history of destructive encroachment on their lands. Efforts of invading colonial powers yielded, among other things, modern isolation among Abenaki bands.
From distant lands, resultant imposed political boundaries and subsequent rules slowly tore the communal fabric of Abenaki and other Indigenous peoples, while simultaneously promulgating violent rivalries among European colonial peoples that broadly sowed destructive isolation among colonists living far from home in North America. At times these ill-intended efforts erupted into open violence in oft-documented broad subcontinental wars, reenacted regional conflicts, or less-publicized, but equally felt localized actions. Seemingly more quietly imported law, then homespun ones from Continental Halls, rippled imposed changes across the continent that resulted in the vanquishing isolation of repressed society segments, whether Abenaki or not.
Modern fragments of both Abenaki and non-Abenaki groups within those fracturing lines have become placed-based rivals at times, with identities and humanity reshaped and differences reinforced by imposed bureaucratic divisions drawn long ago from afar. We heard of the theoretical absurdity of disconnected Abenaki bands in Vermont and Quebec, once sharing common land from Northeastern New York to Prince Edward Island, Northern Massachusetts to Southern Quebec, realized by invoked laws of France, England, Canada, the United States, Quebec and Vermont. The effects of Abenaki isolation in a place they once thrived was evident in personal stories of lived trauma clearly and emotionally expressed. It connected with experiences of non-Abenaki who know shared pain in their lives and yearning for a greater, more tolerant society. All told I observed how the engulfing momentum of political division that castigates low-resourced, disempowered groups is but a prominent, resilient fruit of the ordained goals of a distant few. Yet, there was a latent more powerful fruit that might bloom.
Discussions last night demonstrated to me that healing for these common wounds comes truly from mutual respect for all segments of community at the local level -- from the literal and metaphorical "grassroots" who defy division's destructive lava flow and bring hope for a renewed community where all continue to respect the place we dwell and all people around us. Last night Abenaki and non-Abenaki together completed here a mendable stitch to bolster our common fragile social fabric of a shared community now.
David Mulholland, January 23, 2024
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